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I hope the stock market gets hammered. I hope the Iraqis set fire to as many oil fields as possible. I hope oil prices in the United States surge and shortages persist. I hope the antiwar protestors become disobedient. I hope the economy never recovers. I hope Iraq doesn’t have weapons of mass destruction. I hope our troops make it home alive.

This is the only way to drive home the point that war is brutal no matter who the enemy is. After the bombs dropped on Baghdad and hundreds of Iraqi soldiers surrendered to U.S. and British troops, the pundits on CNN, Fox News and MSNBC reported that the war could end within a month.

“Nonsense,” I said.

This war would be an easy victory for the U.S. and its allies, the cable news outlets said. Kind of like watching the Los Angeles Lakers pummel the Los Angeles Clippers. Reaction here to the commentaries and the real-time images was swift. The stock market soared. Oil prices plummeted. It appears that the outcome of the war is measured by how well the Dow Jones Industrial Average performs

AUSTIN, Texas -- There was Donald Rumsfeld on Sunday morning repeatedly warning the Iraqis that prisoners of war are protected by the Geneva Convention and showing pictures of POWs is wrong. That would be the same Donald Rumsfeld who refused to classify the POWs at Gitmo in Cuba as POWs, instead calling them "detainees" and "military combatants."

The administration initially prepared to claim Al Qaeda fighters were not covered by the Geneva Convention, until the military pointed out that what goes around, comes around. We displayed pictures of our prisoners wearing black hoods, in chains and housed in outdoor, chain-link kennels.

If the Republican Guard surrenders, will right-wing radio talk jocks who have never been near a war refer to them as "hummus-eating surrender monkeys"?

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ... You need to keep an eye on the back pages of the newspapers and the brief recaps that follow, "And in other news today ..." There is stuff flying under the radar you would not believe.

For one thing, both the House and the Senate have passed George

NEW YORK, Mar 22 (IPS) - Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across the United States and beyond rallied against the U.S.-led attack on Baghdad on Saturday, the first weekend since troops began bombing Iraq on Wednesday in sharp defiance of the United Nations call for diplomacy to disarm Iraq.

Millions others remained fixated on their television sets watching in horror images of fire-lit mushrooming clouds and flying debris over Baghdad.

Though a 'New York Times'-CBS News poll taken a day after the first military strike showed a growing number of people here supported President George W. Bush's war on Iraq, organisers of protesters that erupted hours after the first bombs crashed into Baghdad warned that a sizeable population opposes war and suggested that public opinion could quickly turn, in the case of civilian deaths or high troop casualties, for instance.

They noted that while it took years for anti-war protesters to organise against the Vietnam War, the current action faced public opposition even before it started.

"I haven't seen anything like this in my lifetime," said Bill Dobbs of

www.booksforsoldiers.com

It's easy as pie. You can look up or add military addresses of soldiers to send books to. Or can send books to the addresses already on the site.

Books of your choice!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Books For Soldiers started in 1991 during the Gulf War I. We heard from many of our family members and friends about the long waits with hours and hours of nothing to do. We sometimes forget that our service people are alone, thousands of miles away, with nothing to stimulate them intellectually.

During the first Gulf War, we collected almost 1000 used paperback books and sent them to our friends serving in the Gulf and they passed them out to their fellow soldiers.

We received many notes of thanks, after the war, from soldiers who got one of our books, read it and passed it on. It made the time away from family pass more quickly."

We are veterans of the United States armed forces. We stand with the majority of humanity, including millions in our own country, in opposition to the United States' all out war on Iraq. We span many wars and eras, have many political views and we all agree that this war is wrong. Many of us believed serving in the military was our duty, and our job was to defend this country. Our experiences in the military caused us to question much of what we were taught. Now we see our REAL duty is to encourage you as members of the U.S. armed forces to find out what you are being sent to fight and die for and what the consequences of your actions will be for humanity. We call upon you, the active duty and reservists, to follow your conscience and do the right thing. In the last Gulf War, as troops, we were ordered to murder from a safe distance. We destroyed much of Iraq from the air, killing hundreds of thousands, including civilians. We remember the road to Basra -- the Highway of Death -- where we were ordered to kill fleeing Iraqis. We bulldozed trenches, burying people alive. The use of depleted uranium weapons left the battlefields

I read the article on Police FBI/vigilante tactics on the Web site.

I wanted to pass along a similar report of something that happened in Akron. It comes by way of Dana Williams, a volunteer with the Cleveland Indymedia Center. cleveland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=3709&group=webcast Apparently, people holding a peace vigil were attacked and the Cops didn't do anything about it.

On Saturday, another Indymedia reporter/videographer was arrested at a demonstration near the Westside Market in Cleveland. He was on the scene to cover a demonstration by peace activists. Several demonstrators attempted to link arms and form a human chain blocking traffic at an intersection. Police moved in to break up the action. As they shoved demonstrators, the Indymedia guy was knocked down. The Police then told him to get up or he'd be arrested. He replied that he couldn't get up because a Cop was practically standing on him.

Another Indymedia photographer at the scene

Open harassment by Columbus Police, vigilantes and possibly federal agents against the peace movement began Saturday, March 15, 2003. More than 400 peace activists gathered in Blackburn Park at 18th and Main Streets in the heart of the black community. Bill Moss, a prominent African American Columbus School Board member and former “Soldier of the Year” in Ohio spoke out against the illegality of the war with Iraq; Barry Edney, local barber, founder of the Ordinary People’s Movement and a Vietnam-era vet also spoke. Despite the involvement of these well-known black activists within the peace coalition, the Columbus Free Press learned that local precinct officers fanned out through the community, including those assigned to the gang squad, to warn black youth that a large group of white troublemakers was coming into their neighborhood to cause disruption.